What Teens Really Think

by Graham McFarland

A research note was released yesterday by Morgan Stanley and what makes it worthy of mentioning is two things; 1) its topic and 2) its author. The report was written by Matthew Robson, a teenage intern working for the investment bank. His findings and observations help us all see the forest through the trees as technology consumes our every waking moment.

I found this information to be refreshing and a simple explanation of how technology is viewed and used by teens today. Knowing this can tell us all how to better communicate and market to this influential group of consumers (especially in the photography industry). The teens of today are the proud parents of tommorow.

Oh and by the way, I ran this by my own 15 year old daughter and she said he was "right on the money."

Here is the world according to Mr. Robson:

• Teenagers don't use Twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realize that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting Twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). They realize that no one is viewing their profile, so their tweets are pointless.

• No teenager reads a newspaper regularly since most cannot be bothered to read pages of text while they could watch the news summarized on the internet or TV. The only newspapers that teens read are the cheaper tabloids and freebies.

• Teenagers are put off by intrusive advertising so they prefer listening to advert-free music on websites such as Last.fm to traditional radio. Teens see adverts on websites (pop-ups, banner ads, etc.) as extremely annoying and pointless.

• Most teenagers support viral marketing, such as YouTube, as often it creates humorous and interesting content.

• Teenagers are very reluctant to pay for music and most had never bought a CD, with a large majority downloading songs illegally from filesharing sites.

• Teenagers spend their money and time for the experience instead pirating or seeking cheap loopholes (in relation to movies, concerts and video game consoles). Downloading films off the internet is not popular as the films are usually bad quality and have to be watched on a small computer screen and there is a risk of viruses.

• Game consoles like Wii, which are now able to connect to the internet and offer free voice chat between user, have emerged as a more popular choice for chatting with friends than the phone. Also gaming now attracts as many girls as boys and it is accepted as a coed activity.

Good stuff when you think about the considerable sums of money that goes into advertising (and tweeting) to gain the attention of this very powerful group of people that bring in the "new" and usher out the "old" with the whimsy of youth.